In mass notification systems (MNS), notification appliances exist that may accept broadcast configuration commands to all of the notification appliances but not to individual appliances. For example, a synch protocol allows horn type notification appliances to be either silenced or not. However, this only allows for all or none of the notification appliances on a given circuit to be controlled and does not allow for individual control over specific notification appliances. Additionally, the ability to configure an individual notification appliance for light and/or sound output level(s), or continuous versus repetitive light and/or sounding patterns (such as code 3) are physically set in the appliance, e.g., using selector switches, at the time of hardware installation thereof. Also traditional notification appliances do not have a mechanism to report error or trouble conditions as there is no return communication path. Therefore, current notification appliances have limited capability to be “soft configured” after installation based upon overall system need.